FLEETWOOD MAC Rumours NM HOT STAMPER 1977 UK Warner K56344 BUCKINGHAM NICKS

$

150

Vinyl:  NM Play Graded.  Plays Like New!  HOT STAMPER!  Warner Brothers Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the 1977 U.K. Warner Brothers K56344 Release, Mastered at Strawberry Mastering, London!!  One of The Mac's most Legendary LPs!  From The Buckingham/Nicks Era of Fleetwood Mac, this one went on to sell Millions.  Plays like a Greatest Hits Collection with not a bummer anywhere to be found.  The whole band shines here, but, of course, it's Buckingham/Nicks and (Christine) McVie who shine the brightest here with songs that burned their authors names in the Firmament of Rock... This is THE version to have AND it's a HOT STAMPER!
HOT STAMPERS are typically among the first of a factory Pressing run.  The Master is produced from the Original Analog tapes.  The Master is utilized to make the stampers at the Pressing Plant and so, much like coins pressed at a mint, the stampers produce exceptionally highly defined copies until they've made so many that the product begins to lose the definition that the stamper originally provided.  Then, they use a new stamper.

RECIPE FOR IDENTIFYING A HOT STAMPER First:  listen to many copies of Rumours, listening for a copy that has the following qualities:
The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space. The most Tube Amp Presence, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tube Amp Presence that was on the original tapes in 1976.  You can hear the hum of Lindsey Buckingham's Tube Amp warmth throughout.
Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low. Natural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre. Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR ON A HOT STAMPER
ENERGY for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music? Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren't "back there" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them. The Big Sound comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality. Then transient information -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to lesser pressings. Tight punchy bass -- which ties in with good transient information, together with the frequency extension further down. Next: transparency -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments. Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
One of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time!!!  allmusic gives it 5 stars!!!
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Matrices, etched.  Plus, on both sides:  STRAWBERRY (stamped)  ((Mastered at Strawberry Mastering, London))   Complete Dead wax details cheerfully provided upon request.
Cover:  VG++  (see photos)  Includes the photo collage/credits/lyrics Insert, in beautiful condition.  Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright. Seams, corners and spine are solid and clean.   Small area of light staining, bottom right corner.  No splits.  No writing. Spine print is crystal clear.  
Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate an LP accurately by just visually inspecting an album.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).
U.S. Shipping:  FREE domestic shipping! Combine any additional items and they're also shipped FREE!  If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your items by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout.  Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.

All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm.  First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.   On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.  

Rumours Review

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rumours is the kind of album that transcends its origins and reputation, entering the realm of legend -- it's an album that simply exists outside of criticism and outside of its time, even if it thoroughly captures its era. Prior to this LP, Fleetwood Mac were moderately successful, but here they turned into a full-fledged phenomenon, with Rumours becoming the biggest-selling pop album to date. While its chart success was historic, much of the legend surrounding the record is born from the group's internal turmoil. Unlike most bands, Fleetwood Mac in the mid-'70s were professionally and romantically intertwined, with no less than two couples in the band, but as their professional career took off, the personal side unraveled. Bassist John McVie and his keyboardist/singer wife Christine McVie filed for divorce as guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks split, with Stevie running to drummer Mick Fleetwood, unbeknown to the rest of the band. These personal tensions fueled nearly every song on Rumours, which makes listening to the album a nearly voyeuristic experience. You're eavesdropping on the bandmates singing painful truths about each other, spreading nasty lies and rumors and wallowing in their grief, all in the presence of the person who caused the heartache. Everybody loves gawking at a good public breakup, but if that was all that it took to sell a record, Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights would be multi-platinum. No, what made Rumours an unparalleled blockbuster is the quality of the music. Once again masterminded by producer/songwriter/guitarist Buckingham, Rumours is an exceptionally musical piece of work -- he toughens Christine McVie and softens Nicks, adding weird turns to accessibly melodic works, which gives the universal themes of the songs haunting resonance. It also cloaks the raw emotion of the lyrics in deceptively palatable arrangements that made a tune as wrecked and tortured as "Go Your Own Way" an anthemic hit. But that's what makes Rumours such an enduring achievement -- it turns private pain into something universal. Some of these songs may be too familiar, whether through their repeated exposure on FM radio or their use in presidential campaigns, but in the context of the album, each tune, each phrase regains its raw, immediate emotional power -- which is why Rumours touched a nerve upon its 1977 release, and has since transcended its era to be one of the greatest, most compelling pop albums of all time.